Best Science Podcasts (2018)

Our selection of the best science podcasts of 2018. New science podcasts are updated daily from your favorite science news services and scientists.

TED Radio HourThe TED Radio Hour is a journey through fascinating ideas: astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, new ways to think and create. Based on Talks given by riveting speakers on the world-renowned TED stage, each show is centered on a common theme such as the source of happiness, crowd-sourcing innovation, power shifts, or inexplicable connections.

Science for the PeopleScience for the People is a weekly syndicated long-format interview radio show and podcast which explores the connections between science, popular culture, history, and public policy, to help listeners understand the evidence and arguments behind what is in the news and on the shelves. Every week, our hosts sit down with science researchers, writers, authors, journalists, and experts to discuss science from the past, the science that affects our lives today, and how science might change our future.

#465 How The Nose Knows2018-03-15 21:00:00We've all got a nose but how does it work? Why do we like some smells and not others, and why can we all agree that some smells are good and some smells are bad, while others are dependant on personal or cultural preferences? We speak with Asifa Majid, Professor of Language, Communication and Cultural Cognition at Radboud University, about the intersection of culture, language, and smell. And we level up on our olfactory neuroscience with University of Pennsylvania Professor Jay Gottfried.

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1 hour

RadiolabRadiolab is a show about curiosity. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience.
Radiolab is heard around the country on more than 500 member stations.

Rippin' the Rainbow an Even Newer One2018-03-15 15:00:00One of our most popular episodes of all time was our Colors episode, where we introduced you to a sea creature that could see a rainbow far beyond what humans can experience.
Peacock mantis shrimps are as extraordinary as they are strange and boast what may well be the most complicated visual system in the world. They each have 16 photoreceptors compared to our measly three. But recently researchers in Australia put the mantis shrimps' eyes to the test only to discover that sure, they can SEE lots of colors, but that doesn't mean they can tell them apart.
In fact, when two colors are close together - like yellow and yellow-y green - they can't seem to tell them apart at all.
MORE ON COLORS: There was a time -- between the flickery black-and-white films of yore and the hi-def color-corrected movies we watch today -- when color was in flux. Check out this blog post on how colors made it to the big screen from our director of research, Latif Nasser.
Our original episode was produced by Tim Howard and Pat Walters. This update was produced by Amanda Aronczyk.
Special thanks to Chris Martin of Creative Aquarium Nation, Phil Weissman, David Gebel and Kate Hinds for lending us their colorful garments. Also thanks to Michael Kerschner, Elisa Nikoloulias and the Young New Yorkers' Chorus, as well as Chase Culpon and The Greene Space team.
Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.

The Titanium Physicists PodcastDr. Ben Tippett and his team of physicists believe that anyone can understand physics. Black Holes! Lightning! Coronal Mass Ejections! Quantum Mechanics! Fortnightly, they explain a topic from advanced physics, using explanations, experiments and fun metaphors to a non-physicist guest.

Episode 77: Disruptive Feedback2018-02-18 21:05:26A supermassive blackhole at the centre of a galaxy can cause the gas that falls into it to glow SO BRIGHT that it stops the creation of new stars. What? How?
it's called a quasar. It's called an Active Galactic Nucleus. It's called a good time.
Courtney Brooke Davis is here to ask the questions!
Dr. Victoria Scowcroft and Dr. Carolin Villforth are here to give the answers!
and I'm here to talk about pudding.

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55 minutes, 44 seconds

Science and Creativity from Studio 360Science and Creativity from Studio 360: the art of innovation. A sculpture unlocks a secret of cell structure, a tornado forms in a can, and a child's toy gets sent into orbit. Exploring science as a creative act since 2005.

How Time-Travel Stories Borrow from Einstein2016-12-19 13:04:07It's hard to believe, but the words "time" and "travel" were never really linked until H.G. Wells' 1895 novel, "The Time Machine." James Gleick, author of "Time Travel: A History" discovered that everything from Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine to Doc Brown's DeLorean can be traced back to Wells. "He wasn't trying to say anything about science," Gleick says. "In order to tell his story, he invented this gimmick." And "The Time Machine" explained this gimmick with another bit of sci-fi whimsy: that time is the fourth dimension of space. "That was ten years before Einstein's first publication of the special theory of relativity," Gleick says. And once Einstein validated this view of space-time, it inspired countless stories about characters visiting the past and the future.

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8 minutes, 14 seconds

The Science ShowRN's science flagship: your essential source of what's making news in the complex world of scientific research, scandal and discovery. The Science Show with Robyn Williams is one of the longest running programs on Australian radio.

The oldest life on Earth2018-03-16 18:05:31Oldest life on Earth dated to 3.465 billion years shows high diversity
Vale Stephen Hawking
Experiment copies domestication of dogs
Animal behaviour and physiology studies used to improve lives of animals and people
New approach buries carbon dioxide safely in sea water

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53 minutes, 52 seconds

Science FridayCovering everything about science and technology -- from the outer reaches of space to the tiniest microbes in our bodies -- Science Friday is your source for entertaining and educational stories and activities. Each week, host Ira Flatow interviews scientists and inventors like Sylvia Earle, Elon Musk, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and more.

Ancient Tools, Life On Mars, An Aurora Named Steve. March 16, 2018, Part 2.2018-03-16 13:36:18Scientists have been trying for a long time to piece together a question: When did traits of modern humansâlike complex thinking and behaviorsâfirst develop? Anthropologists have uncovered tools in Kenya that date to 280,000 years ago that contained non-local materials, indicating that early humans developed social networks and advanced technology tens of thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
What would daily life be like on the Red Planet? We called a couple experts from NASA, MIT, and Georgia Tech to find out. From meals to transportation, we imagine life on Mars.
Finally, how do you solve a puzzle like Steve? That was the name given to a mysterious southerly pink streak in the aurora borealis, after aurora enthusiasts using the citizen science platform Aurorasaurus began to notice the streak appearing again and again in the images they were sharing.

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46 minutes, 12 seconds

Big Picture ScienceBig Picture Science weaves together a universe of big ideas from robots to memory to antimatter to dinosaurs. Tune in and make contact with science.

Space: Why Go There?2018-03-05 07:55:09It takes a lot of energy and technology to leave terra firma. But why rocket into space when there's so much to be done on Earth? From the practical usefulness of satellites to the thrill of exploring other worlds, let us count the ways. The launch of a NOAA weather satellite to join its twin provides unparalleled observation of storms, wildfires, and even lightning. Find out what it's like to watch hurricanes form from space. Meanwhile, more than a dozen countries want their own satellites to help solve real-world problems, including tracking disease. Learn how one woman is helping make space accessible to everyone. Plus, now that we've completed our grand tour of the Solar System, which bodies are targets for return missions and which for human exploration? Guests:
Sarah Cruddas - Space journalist, broadcaster, and author based in the U.K.
Jamese Sims - GOES-R Project Manager at NOAA
Danielle Wood - Assistant professor, MIT Media Lab, Director of the Space Enabled Research Group
Jim Green - NASA Planetary Science Division Director

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51 minutes, 7 seconds

GastropodGastropod looks at food through the lens of science and history. Co-hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley serve up a brand new episode every two weeks.

Cooking the Books with Yotam and Nigella2018-03-12 17:15:30Who first started collecting recipes into cookbooks? Do cookbooks have a future in a world full of online recipes? And can cookbooks tell us anything about what people are actually eating, or are they simply aspirational food porn? This episode, we explore the past, present, and future of cookbooks, from cuneiform tablets to Hail Marys, ...More â

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48 minutes, 31 seconds

The Guardian's Science WeeklyThe award winning Science Weekly is the best place to learn about the big discoveries and debates in biology, chemistry, physics, and sometimes even maths. From the Guardian science desk -
Ian Sample, Hannah Devlin & Nicola Davis meet the great thinkers and doers in science and technology.

Nature PodcastThe Nature Podcast brings you the best stories from the world of science each week. We cover everything from astronomy to neuroscience, highlighting the most exciting research from each issue of Nature journal. We meet the scientists behind the results and providing in-depth analysis from Nature's journalists and editors.

Living PlanetEvery Thursday, a new episode of Living Planet brings you environment stories from around the world, digging deeper into topics that touch our lives every day.

Living Planet: After the storm2018-03-15 10:55:00In 2017, two hurricanes of the highest intensity â Category 5 â wreaked havoc on the Caribbean islands. Irma came first, Maria followed, leaving a trail of destruction, displacing communities, and causing billions of dollars in damage. Now, six months on, the still-recovering island nations are having to prepare for the next hurricane season that's just months away.

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29 minutes, 59 seconds

Best Science Podcasts 2018

We have hand picked the best science podcasts for 2018. Sit back and enjoy new science podcasts updated daily from your favorite science news services and scientists.

#465 How The Nose KnowsWe've all got a nose but how does it work? Why do we like some smells and not others, and why can we all agree that some smells are good and some smells are bad, while others are dependant on personal or cultural preferences? We speak with Asifa Majid, Professor of Language, Communication and Cultural Cognition at Radboud University, about the intersection of culture, language, and smell. And we level up on our olfactory neuroscience with University of Pennsylvania Professor Jay Gottfried.